Keyword: EU

A planned European Union statement calling on military strongman Khalifa Haftar to halt his Libyan National Army's offensive against the UN-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli was vetoed by France, which has provided military assistance in past years to Haftar in his eastern stronghold.

At a meeting of European Union (EU) ministers on Tuesday, France and Germany said they were concerned over reforms of the Polish judicial system, which are regarded as politically intimidating for the country's courts and a threat to their independence, voicing their support for EU Commission infringement procedures which could in theory result in Poland losing its EU voting rights.

British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, who visited Paris on Tuesday, has called on France and Germany to put pressure on European Union negotiators in Brexit talks to respond more positively to the UK's propositions for a deal and to avoid what he has said is otherwise 'the real chance' of his country leaving the EU next year without one.

Late in June, after days of diplomatic wrangling, 234 migrants rescued off the Libyan coast while attempting to reach Europe in flimsy dinghies were finally allowed to disembark in Malta after several countries agreed to receive quotas from the group. Earlier this month, 51 of them arrived in France. Mediapart travelled to Toulouse, where some were given provisional accommodation, to listen to the harrowing stories of their experiences in Libya, where black Africans are subject to endemic racism and many become the prey and prisoner of vicious local militias. “If an Arab catches you, he sells you,” said one of the survivors. “When you are black, you are a commodity, you’re bought and sold on.” Mathilde Mathieu reports.

France's economy minister Bruno Le Maire has said he hoped the European Union would step in to compensate companies from among its member states who are targeted by sanctions which US president Donald Trump intends to introduce against firms doing business with Iran.

President Emmanuel Macron's government has put down markers for its intention to field French candidates for two key eurogroup jobs as part a push to reassert France’s economic policymaking role after years of subservience to Germany.